I always thought that inside jokes had to be things you said to each other (like, “ya coded” in the fourth season of Grey’s Anatomy). But the more I hang out with write club, I keep discovering that inside jokes are little things that makes us laugh without words: blue hair, deer, an entire sentence of words that only begin with F, cat brothels, and a whole lot of other things that make no sense out of context.

A writing group is almost like being in a private fandom. It’s so frustrating because some of the stories are so worthy of fanfiction and fanart. (One of the novels at write club has not only inspired an epic fanfiction of its own, it’s also inspired a board game and an actual studio-recorded song.) But you can’t do anything with your worship because no one knows about the canon yet. Literally the worst. Hashtag screaming internally, right?

I’m working on what I call a sci-fi conspiracy and what my alpha reader calls a romance. Even though I’m not writing this story to publish or for any serious reasons, really, I’m super excited because I have now officially inspired fanfiction. Not like “draw names out of a hat and write that person a fic” fanfiction, but actual, voluntary fanfiction. And it’s so good too and I can’t even.